This invention relates to the management of resources.
Several types of information technology systems (such as, e.g., enterprise resource management (‘ERP’) systems, customer relationship management (‘CRM’) systems, project systems, and work order management systems) allow users to allocate and control resources for entities such as projects, assets, cost centers, and orders. These systems support various functions within an organization including marketing, planning, design, manufacturing, consulting, development, and combinations thereof. These systems usually include one or more applications that run on one or more computing devices.
One class of information technology system is directed to the management of the lifecycle of an asset or a system of assets. Such systems, termed asset lifecycle management (‘ALM’) systems, can manage the sourcing, management, and sale of assets by a company. For example, an ALM system can identify assets and activities performed with the assets, manage installation, preventative maintenance, corrective maintenance, requests for service, and work schedules of the assets, and integrate financial information and performance statistics regarding the assets.